Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear

Sounds of happy banter filled the room as the girls began to choose their swimsuits together. Fina alternated between agreeing and disagreeing with Noa, while Sherry focused on studying the swimsuit designs in detail.

「I guess I need to make more detailed sketches before I can sew these clothes...」

「How come?」

As Sherry was muttering to herself, Noa leaned over to ask her to elaborate.

「Well, when making clothes, you need to plan it all out in detail. A detailed draft is very helpful all throughout the process. It is also quite useful when coming up with other designs or simply showing it to the customers before they decide on an order. 」

「Ah, you’re right. I’ve seen it before when I got new clothes made for me.」

As expected of our little noble lady Noa. Were all off her clothes made-to-order?

I only had this high quality Bear Suit that had been given to me by God and nothing else, so I was a bit jealous...

「This one is really cute.」

「Yes, but it seems a little bit embarrassing to wear.」

「It might also be hard to make. This one here is much simpler, so I should be able to make it easily.」

Noa and Fina were picking out designs based on their looks while Sherry only considered the prospect of making them.

「Once you two decide, make sure to let Sherry measure your body sizes.」

「Our body sizes?」

「I think both Noa and Sherry should already know this, but your measurements are used to make the clothes fit you. It’s especially important to know the sizes for swimsuits, because if you get them wrong, you won’t be able to wear it at all.」

Swimsuits could neither be too tight nor too loose. Unlike other clothes, if a swimsuit was too large, it could fall off.

While Noa and Fina were of similar height, the children of the orphanage definitely required different sizes, so I hoped that Sherry could get as many measurements as possible.

「You can use the room next door for measuring.」

「Okay, can you measure me first, then?」

Noa jumped at the chance and dragged Sherry into the room next to ours.

「Do the people of your hometown really wear these when they go swimming?」

「Yeah. There are even more varying designs there. Everybody wears a different one when they go to the beach.」

「So, you must have worn one of these as well, didn’t you?」

Fina asked innocently as she looked at the swimsuits.

「I guess so... but that was a long time ago.」

I couldn’t really tell her about how I had worn a school swimsuit when I was in elementary school, so I made sure to keep it vague.

「Did you decide on a swimsuit yet?」

「Yes, somewhat.」

She sounded a bit embarrassed.

Just as I was going to ask her which one, Noa came back from the other room.

「Your turn, Fina.」

Fina replied with an 「Okay!」 and went to the room next door.

「I’m really looking forward to going to the sea with everybody.」

「Make sure you get permission from Cliff, though.」

「Yes, I will. I’m sure he will say it’s fine since you’re coming with us, Yuna-san. Father trusts you, after all.」

If I were a guy, the implications here would be completely different.

I was a girl, though, so that meant Cliff trusted me in a normal way.

Noa continued to look at the designs while waiting for Fina to return.

「Yuna-oneechan, you’re next.」

「Me? It’s okay, I’m not going to wear one.」

「「「Eh...」」」

Sherry, who was also standing by the door, heard me, so all three girls ended up looking at me weirdly.

Had I said something strange just now?

「Yuna-san, you’re really not going to wear one?」

「Yeah, I have no plans to.」

「You can’t do that. If you don’t wear one despite being the one suggesting them, then nobody else will wear them.」

「If you don’t wear one, then I won’t, either.」

Fina took Noa’s side.

「But, I can’t swim... 」

「Neither can I.」

「Yeah, and if Yuna-san doesn’t swim, no one else will, either.」

I wasn’t sure she was right there. I could easily imagine everybody running straight into the water upon seeing the sea in front of them.

「Well, no matter what, you have to wear one, too.」

Noa added as she slowly slid towards me. I quickly stood up and backed away, but something grabbed me from behind.

「Fina?」

When did she get behind me?!

「Yuna-oneechan, I’m sorry.」

She didn’t have to apologize, she just had to let me go.

Of course, I could easily remove her arms by force, but I would never do such a thing to Fina.

「Yuna-san, please give up.」

「Okay, Yuna-oneechan. I’ll be measuring you, so please take off your clothes.」

Sherry took out her measuring tape and stretched it out with a smack.

She then slowly edged towards me

「Um, let’s talk about this first. Yes, we should talk this out, and then everything will be fine. You shouldn’t do things forcibly, you know?」

The two of them continued to approach me, completely ignoring my pleas.

「Yuna-oneechan, we can’t get a swimsuit made for you if we don’t know your sizes.」

「Yuna-san, please just give up.」

Fina was already behind me and Noa hugged me from the front in order to not let me escape.

「Okay, I get it. I’ll do it, so let go.」

I gave up as I knew there was no point in resisting any longer.

I had been hoping that I wouldn’t have to wear a swimsuit even though everyone else would, but it seemed like the girls wouldn’t stand for that.

Since I would now be forced to wear one, I knew I had to get measured as I wouldn’t want the swimsuit to not fit me. Still, I feared my sizes might be a bit embarrassing.

Hopefully, I hadn’t eaten too much pizza and potato chips. I was particularly worried about my stomach area. It should be fine, right?

I was able to fit into Shia’s uniform, so it shouldn’t be too bad.

「You can’t run away, okay?」

Fina believed me and let go, and Noa soon followed.

Now that the two of them let go, I could finally escape... at least, I wanted to.

Well, it was fine if they measured my sizes as long as they didn’t go around telling them to anyone else.

Having given up, I slowly walked into the other room, with the girls close behind me. Sherry would be doing the measurements, so I understood why she followed me in, but why were the other two here as well?

「Um, why are you two coming along?」

「To make sure you don’t run away, of course.」

Noa said happily, and Fina nodded in agreement.

「I won’t try to escape anymore.」

If I was actually going to run away, I would have simply shaken them off earlier.

「We believe you, but just in case.」

「It’s embarrassing to have you all here, though.」

「Why? We’re all girls here, so there is nothing to be embarrassed about.」

Well, I couldn’t rebuke that. They were also all younger than me, so there really should be no issues in that regard. It was like changing for PE class or pool.

Yet, as the elder sister, letting these girls know my sizes could affect my dignity later on.

Maybe if I... Well, even praying to god most likely wouldn’t help, but if my size of that certain area was smaller than theirs, I wouldn’t be able to live anymore.

Not to mention, we also had to measure the orphanage kids’ sizes. There were some younger kids who were growing well. If the girls compared my sizes to theirs, then...

「Um, Yuna-oneechan. We won’t tell anyone, so please trust us.」

Sherry seemed to have noticed my worries and tried to reassure me while also looking at that certain spot of mine.

Why was she looking there?

「Yeah, and Sherry is the only one who will measure your size. She will keep it to herself as top secret information. She won’t even tell Noll-san.」

「Yes, top secret! Even Noll-san won’t know!」

「Ehh...」

「Don’t ehh us. You can’t help it since we need to get your sizes.」

「Yuna-san, I’m aiming to become like you in the future, so I think you’re perfect the way you are.」

「Noa, you should aim to become like Shia, since you’re sisters. Anyway, I refuse to do this. If you keep on insisting, I’m going to have to use force.」

「You’re going to use violence?」

「No.」

I summoned Swaying Bear and Hugging Bear and ordered them to grab onto Noa and Fina.

Swaying Bear took down Noa while Hugging Bear wrapped its paws around Fina, rendering them both immobilized.

「Swaying Bear-chan, please let go.」

「Hugging Bear...」

「Okay, take care of those two for me.」

「Yuna-san...」

「Why me, too...」

I brought Sherry to another room where we could have some peace.

「Sherry, if you tell other people my sizes, I’ll... 」

「I won’t tell anyone. I promise.」

Sherry felt that the threat was real and nodded a couple of times, before I finally decided to believe her and took off my Bear Suit. Even if it was being done by a younger girl, getting my sizes measured was really embarrassing.

This must be how my Bears must have felt when they were being measured for their plushies. If the world were to know of my sizes, I really wouldn’t be able to live here anymore.

Uuu, why did this have to happen...

「Okay, I’m done.」

After suffering from this terrible disgrace, I equipped the Bear Suit as quickly as I could.

Not only did it protect me from harm, it also covered my body. This Bear Suit was truly divine.

Since the ordeal was over, I returned to the other room where the bears were still restraining the other two girls.

「Swaying Bear-chan, it’s really hot.」

「Hugging Bear...」

「You can let them go now.」

The Bears let go the moment I said that.

「Yuna-san, you’re terrible.」

「Why did you restrain me as well?」

「It’s all Noa’s fault, honestly.」

「Uuu, I just wanted to know Yuna-san’s sizes, that’s all.」

That was the problem.

She shouldn’t infringe on other people’s privacy.

「Sherry, please help with the swimsuits for the children and the staff as well.」

「Okay, I will.」

Sherry carefully stashed away the swimsuit designs and the secret data into her item bag. There was also quite a lot of fabric for her to take, so I also lent her one of my item bags to carry it more easily.

「Are you going to be fine by yourself?」

「Yes, I’ll be okay.」

「I will also be stopping at your place tomorrow to ask Noll-san to let you join us on our vacation.」

With that, Sherry walked off, waving goodbye as she went.

For some reason, I was quite exhausted after this encounter.

I headed to Morin-san’s shop for a break and took Fina and Noa with me since they wanted to come along.

Albeit a bit begrudgingly, I decided to treat them to some cake for helping me today.

I told the two of them to order whatever they wanted and headed to the kitchen on the second floor, where I immediately ran into Elena-san.

「Yuna-san?!」

「You’ve gotten better at baking cakes, I must say.」

「No, no, not at all. I still have a long way to go.」

Elena-san was being humble, but the cakes she made really were quite delicious, and I heard that she had been doing some research into new varieties as well.

「So, what brings you here today?」

「I have something I wanted to discuss with you and Morin-san. Can we talk downstairs?」

She agreed, so we took the stairs down directly from the second floor kitchen to the one on the first floor.

It had been rather inconvenient before, so they connected the two kitchens together for easier access.

「Yuna-chan?」

「Morin-san, do you have a moment?」

Morin-san and the children were cleaning up, so I hoped she could take off a few minutes for me.

「Yes, I do. We just finished our work for the day.」

I proceeded to explain to everyone how we would be closing the shop for a few days and go on a trip to the sea.

「The sea?」

「Yeah. Everybody has been working hard, so think of it as a little reward.」

「I’ve never been to the sea before.」

「Me neither, I was always stuck at the capital with my mother.」

Elena-san and Karin-san looked quite excited.

「Is it okay to close the shop, though?」

「It’s fine, so all of you should come.」

「I guess we could. I should see it at least once in my life, right?」

After chatting about the sea for a while longer, I told them that Sherry would be making swimming clothes for them, so she would come here and measure their sizes.

Worried expressions crossed the faces of Morin-san, Karin-san, and Elena-san.

I had finally found others who understood how I felt. As expected, the older one got, the more they didn’t want to be measured.

「Um, Yuna-san. When will we be going?」

「We haven’t decided on a date yet. Probably when it gets a bit warmer.」

「Do you think we will have enough time...?」

「It should be enough, Elena-san. Let’s do our best, together.」

Elena-san and Karin-san both looked down at their stomachs.

「Lately, I’ve been doing a lot of taste testing for cakes...」

「Me too... 」

Ah, that was what they meant by having enough time...

Well, I hoped they could do their best dieting.

I stayed to chat for a while before going home. The next day, I didn’t forget to stop at Noll-san’s place to talk about the swimsuits, inform her about the trip to the seaside, and request some time off for Sherry. Noll-san agreed to let her go without a problem.

Just as all preparations for the trip were well on the way, I received an urgent message from Cliff.

Author’s Note:

Finally, Yuna’s top secret information has been revealed. lol

Well, Sherry isn’t the type of girl to spill the beans, so it should be fine.